I really wasn't enthralled with the idea of having a trail cam in the woods behind my house. After all, I didn't often see animals there.

But things changed when a camera went on sale for about fifty dollars. One surprise was that there's more conflict in my world than I expected.

Even if you don't have a lot of woods around, you can still enjoy a trail cam. You can learn exactly what is destroying bird feeders, and end up placing the feeder on a sturdier base.

.Two tips. Remember to place the camera low if you're taking photos of wildlife in the woods. And make sure you have no grass blades in front of the lens. The wind will move the grass blade and you can have 400 pictures of one very boring bit of foliage. That number is not an exaggeration.

You can't let the bad pictures discourage you. You can have thousands of them if you have a lot of animals around. It's part of the process.

And the critters might enjoy watching your camera

You truly don't know what you'll see.

Again, bird feeders are a great place to start. Or in some cases, like with the quail, under the bird feeders.

It's not so irritating to have your bird feeders raided countess times if you get to watch the culprits and you see how pleased they are.

But there's a bad side too. One picture of an injured deer was so graphic that it almost turned my stomach. I can't post it. But, it did have a happier ending than I expected. The deer recovered, and that was a surprise.

Nature is beautiful one moment, but also deadly.

Even the little ones have to fend off prey. They do quite well sometimes. I strongly suspect these marks are claws. And one fawn had slight puncture marks at the neck.

Bear in mind, you'll really have many, many bad pictures.

Again, it can't be stressed too much. You will have many bad pictures.

Things almost never work out as planned

It's recommended to place your camera facing North or South. The sun rising or setting can reflect on the camera lens and wash out the photos.

Some cameras send the images right to you. But my set-up is the cheapest one and works well for me, particularly because of the freedom it gives me to place the camera at any distance from my house.

I have two camera cards to alternate, so it's easy to take a walk and switch out the cards. You can buy a viewer to take with you, but I found that cumbersome. And I also discovered that different brands have different qualities of pictures. But one works better in one lighting and another in a different lighting so it's hard to recommend a particular brand. On the low-end cameras, cost doesn't seem to matter as much. In other words, when I did spend more on a camera—the quality didn't increase as I'd hoped.

Remember the cameras are small and built to blend in with nature. So when you strap one to a tree in a forest and return three days later, you might find yourself looking around for a moment.

Deer have scrapes (from bucks pawing the ground) or rubs (from thrashing antlers against the trees) in the fall. And if you're in the woods enough to find one of these, and you don't disturb it, you'll have a good location to place the camera near. But never expect perfection. You'll lose interest fast.

I personally stay away from the video mode because it uses so many batteries but I'm re-considering that. The videos are fascinating.

For me, this isn't just about looking at pictures, it's about enjoying nature.

There is a whole community outside my door that I didn't know existed.

Note: Most of these photos are from my husband's trail cam but a few are from my personal trail cam, and the bird on the trail cam is a regular snapshot.